I need to fly from AMS to Aspen CO in Jan. The first 3 calls, it can not be done. Next few calls, well we can do a combination of NW, CO and America West, but the fare will be in excess of $4,500.

I decided to keep calling and calling. Finally I found and agent who had some idea of what she was doing, but could not find any open seats.

What is going on at CO? This is really bad. At least DL knows how to issue a ticket.

I am a plat on CO, you would think they would treat us better. Do they want our money or not?

What should I do, who can I call at CO so I can speak with an agent that knows how to work the reservation system computer for a ticket that is not simple?

I normally get tickets over the web so I can pick or make my own schedule. At the very least, I will research the flights on the web and then call and buy exactly the flights which I need.

I tried this, but the CO web site says that CO does not serve Aspen (ASE) and I have to call CO to make the reservation.

I tried your city combination on a random pair of dates from January on orbitz.com.

I saw a round trip fare of $572 on Northwest and also on United. You can earn CO miles with a NW flight.

When I specified Continental I got some odd combinations of British Airways, Continental and United.

[This message has been edited by Watchful (edited 10-17-2001).]

CO lost, and will loose me as a customer. I called again, with the routings from the sites suggested and CO told me the best they could do was $4,400. I called my TA in Ireland and she was able to get a fare like the one suggested.

Does CO want to go broke? Maybe this is their plan to get more $$$$ from the government.

JRF - Even those of us who fly one airline almost exclusively realize there will be times that a particular routing may be much more advantageous to fly on another airline.
This happens frequently even when flying within the USA, especially if I find myself traveling to a small market like Aspen.

The airline's pricing is certainly a crazy patchwork of highs, lows and in-betweens, but this is true of every major airline except Southwest.

Don't take it out on CO!

(I'm not a Platinum...and never will be!...but don't you get the same benefits flying on Northwest as on CO??)

[This message has been edited by Watchful (edited 10-17-2001).]

Are you able to check Orbitz.com or Expedia.com from where you are in Europe? If so, go to one of those sites, and see what you can get.

Off the top of my head, I'd start with CO from AMS to DEN and maybe a side trip on UA between DEN and ASE. If that's too pricey, try AMS-EWR on CO metal, then EWR-ASE as a CO/NW codeshare. It would most likely be EWR/MSP (on CO) and MSP/ASE on a NWA Regional Jet. That way you should get a through-fare, keeping the cost down.

One other option is to fly NW/KL all the way and as long as all your flights (even in on KLM) you still earn CO miles that apply toward Elite status.

Good luck and let us know what you find out!

I had a second so I checked Orbitz and the NW website.

UA on Orbitz was USD578.00 AMS/IAD/DEN/ASE. NW is USD574.93 AMS/MSP/ASE, anytime after the 3rd of January or later.

The fares I checked were for weekday travel, M-Th.

Thanks a million everyone. My TA did the trip for me on UA. I have since called CO 6 times, the prices for the same route varied from $900 to $4,400, and sometimes, we don't fly that route. It is apperent that CO res agents are not well trained when it comes to issuing tickets on NW and America West. One agent actually told me I could not fly on America West unless it had a CO co chair flight number. I think I am done with CO and will just stick with WN as prime and DL as backup. I tried!

JRF

For the smaller cities (especially code-share cities) such as Aspen, Kahalui, Montrose etc, you can usually do MUCH better by booking 2 RT to/from a large nearby city. As an example my last flight PHL-IAH-HNL was about $550 RT on CO.

If I booked PHL-IAH-HNL-OGG on CO (ie included the extra 60 more miles to Kahalui, Maui my desired final destination) it would of been $3400 RT. I booked the HNL-OGG RT separately for $116.

MisterNice

You're not going to fly CO anymore because their telephone agents couldn't find a reasonable AMS-ASE fare? That's what travel agents are for, on-line or human! Good luck finding the perfect airline.

JS, there is no perfect airlines. CO biggest problem is that the call center agents are not well trained. If CO really wants to make money, they need to learn how to sell a ticket. This is as basic as safety, without it, you go broke.

I think it is unreasonable these days to put ticket purchases in the hands of anyone but yourself.

Orbitz found a good fare, so book it through them! Who cares who books the flight? You still get the miles and the upgrades through Orbitz....

And sometimes you just have to go outside CO and its partners. End of month, I have to get to Sarnia, Ontario. Only CO/NW option is to fly to DTW and drive the 85 miles over the border. No thanks. Air Canada here I come. It's only one trip.

Rich

I think you're being a bit unreasonable, JRF. First of all, CO doesn't service ASE except by offering codeshares on NW flights. 2nd, CO only operates one flight per day out of AMS (they don't code share on the NW flights to AMS). This flight does not arrive in EWR until 3:25 which allows a connection to only one code-share flight combination to get to ASE. This means there is only one flight combination per day that goes AMS-ASE on CO and two of the flights are codeshares, meaning that seats are likely to be limited, particularly in lower fare classes.

It is not reasonable to expect the CO reps to be good a putting together itineraries involving a bunch of non-CO flights. This is a route which simply is not well served by CO, so I don't see a point in complaining that their agents have trouble finding you a low fare on such a route.